Forward! The New Woman

Forward!

The New Woman

THERE passed to the other plane of life not long ago a lady beloved above any in her circle of acquaintance, which was not large. Beyond the limits of one semirural neighborhood and a city 200 miles away, where her relatives dwell, few ever heard of her. She was poor. Until the wasting illness that finally took her out of this life she earned her own living. Then her daughter took care of her. Her health was always delicate, so that she was not able to go often from home. But that home was the center of a social life brilliant and joyous, brilliant because its mistress was a very intellectual woman and drew her own kind about her, joyous because she was joy itself. Her motto was Robert Louis Stevenson's, "Courageous and gay; courageous and gay." Thus she met every difficulty and downfall in her path, and these were not few. Outwardly looked at, her life from girlhood to its close was one of suffering, bad luck and poverty, yet her indomitable will and gladness of spirit rose triumphant over all.

One of the schemes to give pleasure to herself and friends was her book of clippings. She had a merry sense of humor, a keen appreciation of wit. When she saw in her reading a particularly good joke or humorous anecdote, she scissored it out and pasted it In her scrapbook. She called this her jokebook. If she heard a' specially amusing story, she wrote it down. When friends called, she often entertained those who had the developed sense of humor by giving them this book to read or by reading from it to them. After she was gone her daughter found the book in a box of clippings she had prepared to add to it. The book and its clippings are now among the choicest mementos of herself that she left to her friends. It is like a benediction to them--a benediction from one who never slumped or whined or blamed others, but faced the world in the steadfast spirit of courage, sweet temper and high endeavor.

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No work is man's work, no work is woman's, but all work is to the one who can do.

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There is always something irresistibly humorous in a little pig and a little baby.

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One of the successful New Jersey potteries is owned and managed by a woman, Mrs. Poillon. She herself established the pottery, and she learned the business as she went along. During the years when the painting fad was on among American women Mrs. Poillon began dabbling in clays and colors for her own amusement, but after a time settled down to the potter's work as an industrial occupation. She was obliged to learn nearly all the processes by personal experimentation, for professional potters will not reveal to an outside person the secrets of clay mixing. After getting the few instructions she could obtain Mrs. Poillon experimented till she learned how to mix and fire her wares, and it is recorded that she had almost as many failures as Bernard de Palissy before the elusive bird success perched upon the dome of her pottery. Now her plant is thoroughly successful commercially, and she considers the potter's trade a very good one for women.

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I have been interested for some time in watching the lists of honor pupils in the graduating classes of public high schools. Of present summer graduates in one of the two schools I happen to know of, two of the pupils receiving scholarships were boys and six were girls. In the other the only graduate that got a prize was a girl. No boy had any. Is the masculine brain perhaps becoming too fragile to bear the strain of wrestling for a prize in mathematics?

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Miss Ann Dorrance of Wilkes-Barre conducts one of the principal flower growing establishments in the United States. She raises large quantities of roses for the New York city market, and by the end of June had shipped to it more than two million. These roses were mostly produced in greenhouses.

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Women can be eminently successful floriculturists. They can be successful at anything they have grit enough to undertake and stick to.

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One drawback to a woman in an occupation involving mechanical work is her lack of knowledge of the use of tools. For this reason she is often put to great expense in the hire of a carpenter to do repairing and other work she could easily achieve if she had even a slight familiarity with tools. The use of a hammer, saw, hatchet, plane and carpenter's rule ought to be as much a part of a girl's education as a knowledge of housekeeping.

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Mme. Henri Gerin-Lajoie of Montreal has prepared a handbook of the laws of the province of Quebec, and her work has taken its place as a legal reference book, even though women may not yet practice law in that benighted province.

ELIZA ARCHARD CONNER.